Executive Officers

Each graduate program has an Executive Officer responsible for administering the affairs of the program in accordance with the policies established by the program faculty, the Graduate Council, and the CUNY Board of Trustees. See the Executive Officer Web for the following information: Eligible Students Who Have Not Registered, Students on Leave of Absence, Students Who Have Withdrawn, Admissions Applicant Roster, Schedules of Registered Students, Course Information, Instructional and Administrative Activity, and Student Transcript Information.

Click here for a detailed listing (in PDF format) of Executive Officers and Certificate Program Coordinators.

Appointment

The Executive Officer is appointed by the President for a term of three years. In accordance with the Graduate Center Governance document (Section 3.4B), the President solicits nominations and counsel from the individual members of the Executive Committee, doctoral faculty, and students matriculated in the program. The Executive Officer may be reappointed.

Senior-college faculty members who accept assignment as an Executive Officer are released by the college full-time for the term of this service, and the college is credited with one line in the allocation system.

Responsibilities

Each graduate program has an Executive Officer responsible for administering the affairs of the program in accordance with the policies established by the program faculty, the Graduate Council, and the CUNY Board of Trustees.

In accordance with the Graduate Center Governance document, the Executive Officer presides at meetings of the program's faculty (at least once a year), of its students (at least once per semester), of its Executive Committee, and of its Faculty Membership Committee. The Executive Officer has authority to initiate policies and action concerning the affairs of the program and its faculty, subject to the Graduate Center Governance document. The Executive Officer is an ex officio member of all program committees.

The Executive Officer should hold annual meetings with chairs of CUNY college departments in the program's discipline to discuss a variety of issues including procedures for making new faculty appointments useful both to the college departments and to The Graduate Center. In accordance with CUNY Board of Trustees policy, the Executive Officer should try to ensure that college department chairs give preference, when recruiting part-time faculty, to qualified students enrolled in the doctoral program.

The Executive Officer with the Executive Committee monitors multiple positions and ensures that personnel actions are handled confidentially. Executive Officers recommend to the Provost candidates for the Graduate Center's Exchange Visitors Program (see Human Resources for details).

In consultation with the progam's Admission and Awards Committee, the Executive Officer has responsibility for distribution of the program's financial-aid allocation, including Graduate Assistantships.

The Executive Officer determines the courses to be offered each semester after consultation with representative groups of faculty and students. The Executive Officer assigns faculty to teach these courses. The Executive Officer must confirm arrangements for participation of college-based faculty by sending a letter each semester to the academic dean and the department chair of the appropriate CUNY college (see list of chief academic officers). See Curriculum and Campus-Based Faculty for further information.

The Executive Officer is ultimately responsible for mentoring students in the program. This includes monitoring the progress of students (satisfactory progress data are provided in the Banner system).

The Executive Officer is responsible for the annual evaluation of staff (the Assistant Program Officer, as well as reviewing the evaluations of college assistants and adjuncts) and faculty. The Office of Human Resources will notify Executive Officers when such evaluations are due.

The Executive Officer is responsible for appointing a person to maintain and update the program's website (Jesse Merandy, Web Developer, Office of Information Technology, is available to assist). All program web pages should include the following:

an official Graduate Center logo, no smaller than one inch in diameter (72 pixels), which must be included on the program home page (but not on all subpages on the program site). We suggest (but do not require) that this logo be included in the upper left corner of the home page and that it be “hot,” i.e., that it be linked directly to the home page of the Graduate Center (http://www.gc.cuny.edu/) via a mouse rollover and click;

a second link to the Graduate Center home page should be included in the form of "hot" text of the words CUNY Graduate Center, which should be included at the bottom of the program home page, wherever such a link would be most appropriate, given the site design.

The Executive Office is encouraged to prepare a program handbook for the use of students and faculty. In addition to being available in printed form, the program handbook should also be accessible on the program's website.